The Transalpine Pipeline invested heavily in infrastructure again in 2020. The level of investment in Austria amounted to € 1.5 million, with € 34 million being invested group wide.  “This means that we have made an important contribution to safeguarding jobs in the region despite the difficult environment,” stresses Alessio Lilli, General Manager of the TAL Group. TAL employs 243 personnel within the group, 26 of them in Austria. Including partner companies, around 1,000 employees work for TAL in the three relevant countries.

TAL successfully concluded a major renovation project on the Hahnenkamm pipeline tunnels in April 2021. Like the remainder of the oil pipeline, the Hahnenkamm tunnels near Kitzbuhel have been in operation since 1967.  TAL launched this major renovation project in October 2018 to make the pipeline tunnels fit for the coming decades. The total costs of the renovation of the tunnels system amounted to around € 4.4 million.

Demand rising again

“The year 2020 was very challenging for our sector, with demand for crude oil in our target markets dropping by ten percent,” summarises Lilli. Volumes have been rising again since April 2021. “We are getting close to the pre-COVID level.” Last year, TAL unloaded 416 ships in the Port of Trieste and transported 37.5 million tons of crude oil.